Despite a growing interest, climate is still a minor theme in philanthropy. Philanthropists have historically allocated relatively small sums to addressing the problem. Looking at our internal database of over 2500 studied charities and nonprofits across the globe, we have also noticed that climate action makes up a small proportion of charity sector attention. The following nonprofits are among a few that have made climate solutions their mission:

 Rainforest Action Network, Citizens' Climate Lobby, Vereniging Milieudefensie, BRAC, Global Footprint Network, 350, Environmental Defense Fund, Practical Action, Conservation International Foundation, EarthJustice, ClientEarth, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Cool Earth Action. 

What has made the above nonprofits unique to us, is not only the cause they are active in, but that they stand out in the pool of Kinder evaluation databases. Studies from our research team show that these nonprofits hold on to a high standard that determines trust and success. They transparently provide the public with open and crucial information about their projects via their websites and demonstrate their commitment to accountability by showing their key performance indicators.

Apart from the fact that these nonprofits are among the top ranking in our system, together, they conform to the Kinder’s mindset towards solving problems through collective efforts. This is the foundation of initiating and creating Kinder United Actions (UAs), initiatives to urge and endorse holistic solutions to tackle one problem.  

Our UAs are built on three pillars: raising public awareness about the most pressing problems of our times, promoting holistic solutions, and empowering donors.  

 1- Raising public awareness. We inform individuals, large- and small-sized brands, about each problem based on facts, providing them with a fresh perspective on all dimensions of a problem. 

 2- Emphasising holistic solutions. We believe in system thinking when approaching a problem, bringing confidence in the power of a holistic approach and united contributions to tackle the same problem by our top- ranking nonprofits or charities. 

3- Empowering donors to make educated giving decisions. Our wish is to nurture donors as holistic thinkers and call for concerned citizens to develop this mindset by keeping an eye on the big picture that a problem sits within. We ask our philanthropists to support a holistic strategy instead of a singular approach when making supporting decisions.

We aim to streamline the donation process and present charities and nonprofits to potential donors in an integrated way. United Actions showcase the strength of individual charities and nonprofits and educate donors and key beneficiaries on various dimensions of the issues. 

 We also aim to empower knowledge and restore donor trust and enthusiasm. We don’t stop at only promoting outstanding nonprofits and charities, we also help them become more transparent, effective and accountable. We evaluate them with our in-house framework that we developed in collaboration with academics from universities in the Netherlands and the UK, which we use to provide tailored feedback on how to improve. We see this as a long-term, sustainable collaboration. We also help brands connect to causes they care about, and ensure all services are free to nonprofits and charities.   

 You can find out more about Kinder here and our research sector here. Let’s connect. 

For more insight about the nonprofits discussed above, please check the following table:

This article was written by Behdokht Hosseini, PhD, Head of Research & Development at Kinder. "Having a long-term curiosity for understanding human brain as the most sophisticated thinking entity, Behdokht did her Master and Doctorate in Neuroscience. Now at Kinder, she continues to have her quest for what makes humans impactful in their actions and interactions towards a more compassionate world"